


And What a Man Can't

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Broken Bones, Ending Feels Like a Cliffhanger, Force suppression, Forced Prostitution, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Objectification, Past Noncon Castration, Rape/Non-con - Freeform, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Unresolved Ending, blinded character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 06:13:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13265400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Obi-Wan's been stolen into slavery. Anakin's here to get him out. Things aren't as straightforward as Anakin would prefer.





	And What a Man Can't

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Pirates of the Caribbean where Captain Jack talks to Will about the way things work. “What a man can, and what a man can't.” Either Will could accept that his father was a good man and a pirate... or he couldn't. Anakin's going to have to deal with what he can endure in order to accomplish a goal... and what he can't.
> 
> And the consequences of it.

 

The slow, sensual drag of hips, the heavy liner around the eyes, the scarf-like apparel that did very little to hide anything—

It wasn't what Anakin had expected.

Given his master's physical strength, he'd assumed he'd be put to grueling manual labor.

It had never occurred to him that the rest of the universe might find Obi-Wan desirable.

Anakin saw chafing where the Force-inhibiting collar locked around Obi-Wan's throat, though someone had tried to conceal the wounding with powder.

Anakin knew injuries caused by cuffs and chains and leashes.

They couldn't fool him.

He burned with rage as he heard the audience mock his master, or worse, call out to him. Obi-Wan ignored them all, his movements measured and languid.

Anakin had seen his master dance. On countless worlds, the ambassador Jedi had been invited to attend parties and balls, and the Jedi went. Obi-Wan had always been a graceful dancer, Anakin had worked very hard to become half as good, but he'd never seen his master dance like  _ this. _

It made his heart ache with an agony that wasn't going to soon be displaced.

Obi-Wan's gaze crossed his own, but the older Jedi gave no hint of recognition.

Anakin wasn't sure he himself could have been so composed. After nearly a year of servitude, surely Obi-Wan's confidence that Anakin would find him must have flagged. Fortunately for them, Obi-Wan possessed more self control than Anakin did.

He hoped to hell and back that the collar hadn't been on the whole time, trying to ignore the rising panic in his throat demanding he unlatch it  _ now _ , because damage might be done within the next heartbeat or two—

_ Steady, Skywalker. _

But if Obi-Wan suffered permanent harm from the continued use of the collar...

Anakin was never going to forgive himself.

“Okay,” announced a man at the table behind where Anakin stood casually leaned against a pillar, “I need that guy to frip me.”

His neighbor snorted his mouthful of liquor through his nose. “Bit late, pal. You'd have to settle for fripping  _ him. _ Eunuchs can't do the other thing.”

Anakin's throat went utterly dry.  _ They didn't. Oh, please, they didn't— _

“Yeah they can,” the first protested. “I mean, they spill less, and they don't much care to start anything, but if you touch 'em right, they'll rise for you. And they're not completely dry, it's just far less of a mess. Girls love 'em.”

“You're kidding me right now.”

Something clanged on the table. “We'll talk again after you've tried a gelded slave.”

“I'll pass. They don't have enough fight for me.”

“Yeah... given the scars on that one, I'd say he might have rebellion enough for you.”

“I got my eye set on the little Twi'lek over in the back.”

“Which one?”

Anakin grit his teeth and kept his place. The scars across Obi-Wan's bare back seemed to have been inflicted mostly by whips, but there were a couple that looked suspiciously like knife wounds. Instead of trying to hide them, Obi-Wan's skin had been dolled up to show them off, they gleamed even whiter than they should, shifting as the muscles beneath moved while Obi-Wan caressed the pole and slid down its length.

A third voice joined the other two, this one female. “You sure he's gelded? He seems well hung.”

“I know because I asked,” was the answer.

His buddy added, “During the surgery when they take  _ out,  _ they put spacers  _ in.  _ Flat balls aren't exactly attractive looking, and if you take 'em away entirely, you lose some of your clientele who don't like how feminine they start to look. The point is to take the fight out of them and house them safely with your girls. Speaking of. Having a eunuch in with your girls can give you unexpected leverage, especially if he's blind. The girls respond like they would to an injured animal, and because he has no sexual interest in them, their brains perceive him different. If your girls are acting out, threaten the eunuch, and they fall back in line.”

__  
I can't kill yet. The moment I kill is the moment I lose track of Obi-Wan again. I did not get this close to lose him because I can't hold back.  


Given Obi-Wan's active participation in this, Anakin was fairly sure the leverage was working the other way.

_ They threatened someone. And unless I can ensure their safety, Obi-Wan is going to refuse to escape with me. _

He knew his master well enough for that.

He needed more recon.

Patience.

But he realized he'd made a very,  _ very  _ good call when he'd left Ahsoka to fix the engines of the ship.

Ahsoka would be radiating subdued outrage in a way that anyone paying attention would notice.

Someone placed an object on the stage. Anakin couldn't quite discern what.

Obi-Wan's head was tilted down, but he made no move to pick the object up.

And then, looking right at it, he tripped.

Anakin's heart lunged into his throat.

Obi-Wan's forearms hit hard, his whole body quivering with startled pain, and there was something in his face—

Fear and helplessness—

_ He's blind. _

Anakin stared into beautiful blue eyes and knew.

_ Oh, Obi-Wan, forgive me for not finding you sooner. _

 

* * *

 

The man who should have been dead and wasn't had been right.

Anakin found Obi-Wan housed with the women, not the men.

From his place of concealment he watched them lead Obi-Wan through the door, watched them inspect the wounds on his neck, watched them murmur amongst one another, watched one of them begin to strip the scar-highlighting cosmetics from his back.

One offered Obi-Wan a sponge, and he began to try to remove the false color from his face, moving methodically to make up for his lack of vision.

“There was a cute guy watching you. I thought for sure he was going to make a move,” one murmured. “He was definitely into you.”

Obi-Wan grimaced.

“His eyes looked kind,” the Twi'lek continued. “If he comes in again tomorrow, I'll let you know where he's sitting.”

Obi-Wan heaved a bone-weary sigh, running fingers over a chin where the beard was missing. “You are kind, Kura. How old is this one?”

“Mid twenties, I'd guess.”  
Obi-Wan's lip curled. “Another young one.”

“I doubt anyone knows your actual age,” Kura soothed. “You look younger than you are. At least he isn't old and disgusting.”

Obi-Wan's lips thinned, as if he found that to be small comfort.

“He looks like a pirate,” another spoke up. “Terribly handsome, and I agree with Kura. I don't think he's like the others.”  
“Please don't coddle me.” Obi-Wan stood, tried to move away, then paused, having failed to count his steps, having made them a different length than usual—

Kura watched him with sorrowful eyes. “One step more,” she murmured.

Obi-Wan placed one more hesitant foot in front of the other, and then began his turn. “I don't need false hopes.”  
“I _ know  _ there are men who want eunuchs for more than just torture and humiliation,” Kura pleaded. “Maybe this time won't be so bad.”

Obi-Wan reached out in front of him, located his sleep couch, and shuffled to it. “It's always 'so bad.'”

There was a calm fatalism in his voice that gutted Anakin.

_ I'm going to get you out of here. I swear. _

 

* * *

 

His plans weren't ready when, two days later, he saw Obi-Wan being herded to one of the back rooms by a positively massive customer.

Anakin's every instinct was to intervene  _ now— _

_But this isn't something new, and our chances will be much better if we wait._

He hated himself for even calculating, but—

_ We can't afford to screw this up this time. _

Last time they had, they'd  _ lost  _ him, and it had taken this long to find his next owner.

Anakin tapped at the blaster strapped to his thigh, wished for his lightsaber, and grit his teeth.

He held to his resolve until he heard Obi-Wan screaming.

And then every resolution had to either swim or die, because they'd all been dumped out of the boat.

Anakin crashed the door open with the Force and placed a single, precise bolt through the brute's heart. The repulsive creature collapsed, pinning Obi-Wan to the bed, the enslaved Jedi letting out another cry.

At his side in an instant, Anakin rolled the corpse off of Obi-Wan, wincing as that pulled it out of him.

Obi-Wan scrambled to the corner, trying not to visibly cower— but it had a very similar effect as he struggled to  _ hear—  _ wondering if the attacker would be more cruel than the slaughtered one—

He left a trail of blood across the sheet, and his leg had a strange angle.

And that's when Anakin knew they weren't going to make it.

He wanted to speak, to ease Obi-Wan's fear, to reassure him—

_ But if he knows who's here for him, when they ask... _

Anakin pulled him from the corner, draping him over his shoulder to leave his right hand free for his blaster.

And then he ran like hell.

Obi-Wan whimpered, offering up no resistance.

 

* * *

 

In the end, Obi-Wan wasn't punished.

After all, it hadn't been an escape, but an abduction.

Obi-Wan did no foolish thing like begging to not be separated from his abductor, because he didn't know who it had been.

And as Anakin suffered, he knew that remaining silent had been the right call.

Fortunately, they seemed only to think that he was a customer who'd grown a little too possessive of the provided entertainment.

They handed him over to the local police after roughing him up a bit.

The punches and kicks hurt, the cracked ribs would take time to heal...

_ But it's nothing compared to what Obi-Wan endures night after night. _

It took Ahsoka several hours to figure out what had happened and locate him, and then she was there, bailing him out with all the long-suffering patience of a parent fetching their problem child.

Anakin couldn't look her in the eye.

Security was going to be tighter around Obi-Wan, his cover was useless now, and Obi-Wan severely injured.

_ This rescue is going very well, Skywalker. So well. _

 

 


End file.
